The Matrix Online to officially shut down July 31 '09

A developer (according to his forum rank) for the Matrix Online that goes by the name 'Warlus' on the Sony Online Forums made an announcement about The Matrix Online officially shutting down.

On the forums he had this to say:

In May 2004, I embarked upon a journey. I decided to take the red pill in a big way—I became the online community lead for The Matrix Online. Later that year, many of you joined me as you jacked in for the first time. It was a brand new world—a vision of online games that didn’t involve elves, spaceships, or dragons. We became part of the Matrix storyline; living our own adventures in the world painted by the movies.

It seems not so long ago I was jumping into Mara Central and going toe-to-toe with other devs at E3 2004. I had no idea this journey would take me to a whole different company, managing a major revision of the game, and my first producing gig. “Long, strange trip” doesn’t describe the half of it.

Now we’ve seen how far the rabbit hole goes and it’s time to wake up from that dream (or go back to sleep, depending how you look at it). On July 31, 2009, we will be jacking out for the last time. It’s a bittersweet moment for everyone involved with the game; as a player or as a developer.

It has been a good run. Where many games have fizzled out before or shortly after launch, by August we will have lived on in our home at SOE for more than 4 years. To this day, I have never worked with a community as dedicated as The Matrix Online community.

I’ll be at Fan Faire this year showing The Agency and hanging out with any redpills making the trip. The past couple years have been a blast, so I hope to see some of you there again..

The team will also be whipping up an end-of-the-world event. It won’t be quite the same as having over 100 developers in the game as Agents like when we ended beta, but we have 4 years of tricks up our sleeve. It’ll be a chance to revisit all the things that make MxO the memorable experience it is. And how could we pull the plug without crushing everyone’s RSI just one more time?

I have a lot of fond memories from my years working on MxO. We’ve had a good time in the Machines’ little playground and will be sad to see it end. I hope everyone enjoys the last few months of playing The Matrix Online.

See you on the other side.

Daniel “Walrus” Myers

The Matrix Online officially launched in North America on March 22nd 2005.  The game was originally developed by Monolith Productions, which six months later was bought by Sony Online Entertainment (SOE).  The idea for The Matrix Online was to have in-game events where the employees would play Agents online.  After Sony bought the rights to the game, they ceased all in-game events and all that remained of the MMO left was a generic bland and boring MMO.

According to one former beta tester of the game, he said:

"It felt like a half-assed Anarchy Online set in The Matrix universe.   The mission system was identical for the most part, the abilities were less interesting and there wasn't much diversity in the environments.  It did have a wonderful (but small) community, something I can really appreciate.  I wasn't a fan of the game, but I feel kinda bad for the people who DO enjoy it."

I can't personally give any opinion about The Matrix Online as I never played it, because it was rare to read anything positive about the game.  The only related Matrix game I've played was "The Path of Neo" which I thought was god awful.

It's always sad news when you hear about any online game shutting down.  Another MMO that died recently was Shadowbane, which finally shut down May 1st.

[caption id="attachment_2098" align="aligncenter" width="500" caption="In-game screenshot of The Matrix Online"][/caption]

Sources:

• Sony Station Forums - "All Good Things Must End"


• Wikipedia - The Matrix Online

Apologies for the lack of updates

[caption id="attachment_2076" align="alignright" width="230" caption="My Draenei Mage: Mirgy.  This is actually my character with the equipped gear."][/caption]

I wanted apologize for the lack of updates on the site.  The reason for my absence is I've been so sidetracked with WoW.  I got fed up with playing a Death Knight because everybody in the guild I'm in has a DK or a DK alt.  The only reason why I rolled a DK to begin with was to avoid having to level from 1-80, as DK's get a headstart at level 55.

I kinda knew when I first leveled my Death Knight that there was going to be alot of competition because lets face it — DKs are the flavor of the year class.  With everybody being a DK, it made getting into groups (PVE & PVP) somewhat difficult.

As a result, I stopped playing WoW for some time as I was bored with my DK.  As somebody whom has played a DK since the launch of the Lich King expansion, I can say with confidence that DKs to this day are STILL very overpowered.  I found the play style of PVPing with a DK is boring because there is little to no strategy involved, you can pretty much faceroll any class 1 vs 1.

At some point I nearly gave up leveling my mage.  Despite Blizzard making leveling up easier, it still SUCKS major ass leveling in classic WoW (levels 1-58).  Once I reached the expansion areas, I was able to blast through levels 58-80 in a matter of a week and a half.

I always had a thing for mages, my very first character in WoW was an undead mage named Mirgy.  I've always enjoyed the strategy involved PVPing with Frost talents.  Blizzard has done a very good job with the frost talent tree - especially since they changed the Blizzard spell where it now can crit.  Every time I cast that spell and see numbers spamming my screen, I squeal like a little girl does at a Jonas Brothers concert.

The sad thing is the mage I leveled already outgears (at least in PVE) my DK in gear.  That's what happens when you don't have to compete against 30 other people with the same class as you.

I kinda regret using my name Mitalis for the DK, as that character is no longer my main.  I used to use the name Mirgy alot in the past, in fact, the first character I created in WoW was an Undead Mage named Mirgy.  I wish there was I way I could easily swap the names and name my mage Mitalis, but you can't always get your way.

In any event, now you know where all my spare time has been.  Leveling a character from scratch to 1-80 is no quick task.  But now it's been done I'll have more free time to post again.

Palm Pre release date & price finally announced

[caption id="attachment_2061" align="alignright" width="180" caption="All I can say is It's about time!"][/caption]

All I have to say about this is: "ABOUT FUCKING TIME!"

Palm & Sprint both released their own Press Releases announcing the pricing of the phone as well as the release date which is expected to be available June 6th.

New customers (those that are not with Sprint) will be able to obtain the phone for $199 with a 2 year contract.  Suggested retail price of the phone will be $549.99.

For those who are curious as to how the breakdown works see below:

• You got $150 taken off that price with a 2 year contract


• An instant rebate of $100


• A mail-in rebate of $100

Making the price of the phone $199 when all is said and done.

Those with Sprint already (like myself) will have to wait at least 1 year through their contract before they can see any rebates or discounts.  In my case, I'd have to wait until August 1st 2009 if I were to get the Pre ad a discounted price.  This of course would also mean that I would have to extend my contract for another 2 years.

I'm kinda torn here.  Right now I'm currently paying roughly $80/month for my current plan, which is the lowest plan you can get with the Palm Pre.

My plan consists of the following:

• 450 Anytime Minutes


• Unlimited data including text, pics, etc..


• Free nights/weekends


• Other common included features, (voicemail, caller ID, etc)

That is $69.99 for the plan alone.  I also have phone insurance which adds an additional $7/month seeing as smartphones (like the one I have now) are pretty expensive.  You throw in federal & state taxes on top of that and the total comes out to about $80/month.

I didn't realize how much money I'm spending for my phone. I ran the numbers $80/month x 24 (months) which gave me 1,920.  This shocked me as I thought that the total number was going to be lower so I ran the numbers again to double check and apparently that's what I'm paying for 2 years of phone service.  That's alot of money.

The thing that kinda tears me is I really don't want to extend my contract a second time as I just renewed it again last August when I got my Blackberry.  As much as I like my Blackberry, there's a few things about it that prevent me from using the phone as much as I would like to use it (namely the shitty browser), which is why I want to get the Pre ASAP.

I think in the long run it'd be cheaper to just pay full price for the Palm Pre and let my contract run its course.  The way I see it, it's $80/month x 12 which comes out to $960 + $549 (for the Palm Pre) = $1509.  That why Sprint won't have me by the balls for another 2 years.

Initially I had contemplated just paying the ETF (Early Termination Fee) and just signing up as a new customer, but that would put my existing phone number into a 6 month hold where it couldn't be migrated or used (even by me on a new account) and I really don't want to deal with that mess.

Mexican Car Crash

...How is this even possible?

[flashvideo file=http://mitalis-videos.s3.amazonaws.com/mexican-car-crash.flv width=480 height=320 /]